Student’s dark tastes

An interesting essay in Education Week, with a quote from UAlbany prof Arthur N. Applebee, about what kinds of literature appeal to teens: serious themes with more contemporary settings. The article is here.

Here are some excerpts:

And she and her classmates are more enthusiastic about reading and discussing The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the novel The Secret Life of Bees in her honors English class because of the real-life conflicts they portray.

Those themes have raised concerns among parents and others that students are being exposed to material that is overly grim or mature. Many of the books that face challenges by parents and community members feature violence, death, profanity, sex, and other sensitive content. While similar themes may also characterize great plays and novels—from “Romeo and Juliet” to Jane Eyre to Of Mice and Men—they tend to fuel more controversy in those set in the present day, especially when they resonate with the lives of today’s students and families, observers say.

Several years ago, Barbara Feinberg became distressed at her own son’s reaction to reading the realistic fiction that was assigned for his middle school English class. Her son, a fan of upbeat, humorous texts, dreaded the required readings, which he found depressing and morbid, she says.

She wrote a memoir outlining her concerns. In Welcome to the Lizard Motel, Ms. Feinberg argues that such selections tend to push life’s harsh realities on students from an adult perspective and do not accurately reflect how children rely on fantasy and imagination to explain difficult subjects.

…

Age cannot whither Shakespeare, or the works of other masters, which still dominate the curriculum, according to Arthur N. Applebee, a professor of education and the director of the Center on English Learning and Achievement at SUNY Albany. Mr. Applebee has conducted several studies of the English curriculum throughout the 20th century.

“The core of the canon is still there, and Shakespeare is always on top of the list by a long margin,” he said. But the trend toward incorporating more diverse and recent works has generally had a positive impact on the curriculum, Mr. Applebee argues. The most widely used literary anthologies, he said, now include more works by women and members of racial and ethnic minorities, and feature stories about other cultures.

Students’ distaste for classic works, or the difficulty of tackling such hefty readings, shouldn’t deter teachers from their responsibility for teaching them, according to Carol Jago, a longtime high school English teacher and prolific writer on the subject.